At the Monterey Bay Aquarium a crowd has gathered around the otter exhibit, watching the animals do somersaults in the water and paddle on their backs while clutching toys. “Aren't they fun?” an elderly woman asks her companion. “Bonk,” a boy says as one otter bumps heads with another. “Bonk, bonk.” Upstairs, past locked doors and an office marked SORAC (Sea Otter Research and Conservation), a different kind of otter action is happening. Aquarium staffers use nets to wrangle three otters from a tank into plastic kennels, so they can remove mussel shells and other food debris. These are not the crowd-pleasing otters of downstairs. They are wild animals, brought in as pups after stranding or becoming sick. They were raised at the aquarium with minimal human contact and fiercely dodge to avoid the nets.

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